Portrait of The Artist As A Young Man

Product Description:

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN contains 81 songs and includes an 80-page book with comprehensive liner notes, rare and unseen photos from Armstrong's personal collection, original 78 label art and other period memorabilia.

Personnel includes: Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, Maggie Jones, Bessie Smith, Clarence Williams, Sidney Bechet, Johnny Dodds, Earl "Fatha" Hines.

Includes liner notes by Dan Morgenstern and Loren Schoenberg.

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN: 1923-1934 won the 1995 Grammy Award for Best Album Notes. It was nominated for Best Historical Album.

Liner Note Authors: Dan Morgenstern; Loren Schoenberg.

This magnificent Grammy Award-winning box set offers plenty of value to longtime fans and neophytes alike. While many highlights from PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN may be found on individual Columbia Louis Armstrong discs (as well as the Bessie Smith and Fletcher Henderson boxes), this chronological portrait of the young genius also includes many of the trumpeter's rarest early works as a sideman. Taken as a whole--with Dan Morgenstern's masterful annotations--they create a fuller musical picture of the man who taught the world to swing...and sing.

These four volumes chronicle young Armstrong's development from his earliest sideman work (with King Oliver, Clarence Williams, Fletcher Henderson and a host of blues and pop singers), through his incredibly influential Hot Five and Hot Seven sides, on to international stardom as a singer and orchestra leader. Also featured are such provocative, seldom-heard collaborations as his bluesy turns with the father of country music, Jimmie Rodgers ("The Singing Brakeman") on "Blue Yodel No. 9."

In this brief space it's impossible to chronicle the countless innovations that derive directly from Louis, and which form our collective rosetta stone of modern music--both pop and jazz. Armstrong transformed everything he touched into a new vocabulary, and as Dan Morgenstern points out, Satchmo's sources weren't limited to blues, spirituals, ragtime, marches and dance music, but the classics as well--particularly opera. In the rush to praise his cornet/trumpet playing, his vocal innovations are often overlooked. On "No One Else But You" he treats the basic beat as a glorious given, and phrases around it in a personalized mix of rap, scat and blues syncopations, displaying a symphonic sense of structure and an operatic feel for the dramatic gesture. And on the classic Fats Waller tunes "Ain't Misbehavin'" (with its sly Gershwin paraphrase) and "(What Did I Do To Be So) Black And Blue," he achieves a poignant balance of resignation and celebration, topped off by soaring flights of freedom.

No serious devotee of American music can afford to miss such a motherlode of gems, but some of Louis' lesser known tracks are full of surprises as well. On "Texas Moaner Blues" (from 1924) Louis and Sidney Bechet dig in for a rivetting duel, while his 1925 "St. Louis Blues" with Bessie Smith will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. "Gutbucket Blues" and "I'm A Ding Dong Daddy (From Dumas)" contain the modern jazz germ seed of Dizzy Gillespie's "Salt Peanuts," and the joyous "Knockin' A Jug" (with trombonist Jack Teagarden and guitarist Eddie Lang) was among the first authentic interracial sessions. Yet it is in his work with lesser lights--such as Maggie Jones ("Anybody Here Want To Try My Cabbage"), Bertha "Chippie" Hill ("Low Land Blues") and Seger Ellis ("To Be In Love," the first interracial band to back a white popular singer)--that Armstrong's true genius shines through, elevating mundane fare into transcendent experiences through sheer force of will. LOUIS ARMSTRONG: PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN: 1923-1934 is an essential purchase.